Aung Din served over four years
behind bars as a political prisoner in Burma after organizing and helping
to lead the country's nationwide pro-democracy uprising in 1988 as Vice Chairperson
of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), a largest national
student organization and outlawed by the regime. He is also country
representative of the Thai-Burma border based "Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners-Burma" (AAPP). He has been quoted in countless media
articles, testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and
Congressional Human Rights Caucus, and traveled on speaking tours across the United States.

Min Zin

Min Zin has been involved in Burmese pro-democracy
movement since he was 14 as a high school student activist in early 1988. He
founded nation-wide high school student union in Burma and worked with pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi closely. He went into hiding in 1989 as he had had to
avoid the arrest by military, and his underground activist-cum-writer life
lasted for nine years until he fled to Thai-Burma border in September 1997. He
was a deputy editor of the Irrawaddy Magazine(www.irrawaddy.org).
He
has been a visiting scholar at U.C.
Berkeley's School
of Journalism in
2001-2002.He is currently working as a
broadcaster for Radio Free Asia (Burmese Service).

Maung
Maung Win (Maung Yit)

In 1998, He was a 20-year-old electrical
engineering student at Rangoon Institute of Technology, a politically active
school comparable to UC Berkeley or SF State when police raided the campus
breaking into dorm rooms and jailing outspoken students. He wrote articles for Burmese
newsletters that were critical of the repressive government between the
years 1988 – 1996. He left his country in 1997 to Singapore where he help founded
informative web sites for Burmese to promote freedom of expression. Fours
year later he flew to the United States to attend graduate school in Iowa at
Fairfield
and then co found MoeMaKa Radio in April 2003. He is now also working at J Paul
Leonard Library, San Francisco
State University
as System Specialist.

Officers

Htain
Linn

1988-2001, he was actively involved in
struggle for democracy in Burma
by participating himself in Student Union, Democratic Party for a New
Society [DPNS] and National League for Democracy. As a writer and an editor by profession, he
had worked in several local magazines and journals with various pen names
including "Htain Linn". He was detained twice by military junta as an
active member of NLD while NLD was staging the CRPP action to head against
National Convention by military junta back in 1997 and 1998. In 2001, he fled
to Thailand,
worked as Editor for Burmese Edition in Irrawaddy Publishing Group, Burmese
media group in exile. He had written numerous articles on Burmese struggle for
democracy and freedom of expression in various Burmese publications outside Burma including
Radio Free Asia – Burmese Services and New Era Journal (Khit Pyaing). He is
still an active member of AAPP-Burma (Assistance association for political
prisoners in Burma).

Zarny
Win

Since 1988, he was an active NLD-Youth
member participating in the struggle for democracy in Burma. He had
been detained twice for his democratic political activity. After he fled to Thai-Burma
border in 2000, he became a staff writer of Irrawaddy Publishing Group. He also
published his own Burmese news journal – Shwe Yanant (Golden Scent) for the
Burmese readers at the border area. He is also serving as an active executive
member of AAPP-Burma (Assistance association for political prisoners in Burma).

Khu Myo
Nge (Cartoon Dynamite) ( Cartoonist in Exile )

After the military junta brutal crackdown on
democracy demonstration in 1988, he fled to Thai-Burma border. He constantly
worked with Burmese media groups in exile as an illustrator and cartoonist in
their publication. He was well-known for his politically critical comic strips
in Irrawaddy News, Khit Pyaing and Other Ethnics Newsletters.

Chann
Myay Ain

An anonymous Burmese social and community
volunteer who frequently travel into Burma to contribute his labor and
service with non profit and non governmental humanitarian and medical
organization for socially and economically disabled Burmese people in the rural
area.

Advisory

Tin Moe
( Poet in Exile)

A Well-known writer whose literary
work has achieved great recognition and appreciation before the advent of the
military dictatorship in Burma.
Living in involuntary exile, he is unofficially regarded as being his country's
'national poet'. Although his work is banned in Burma,
he continues to write poetry and other work in Belgium
and the United States.
His texts are a constant source of inspiration for his people. Tin Moe's poems
are circulated in pro-democratic circles in Burma and are regularly published
in the foreign media. He was awarded with Prince Claus Award in 2004 honoring him for
his outstanding literary achievements and for his role in sustaining culture as
a source of strength, inspiration and identity.

Maung
Swan Yi ( Critic & Poet in Exile)

A well-known scholar and writer,
his poems, short stories, book reviews, and articles on Mayanma (Burmese)
literature and art have appeared in various journals, magazines, and newspapers
since 1958, often under the pen name Maung Swan Yi. He has lectured on
literature, at schools, town halls, churches, and monasteries, since 1962 and
has also devoted himself to the preserving of Burmese culture, conducting extensive
field research on Burmese folklore and folk music.

Mar Mar
Aye ( Musician Artiste in Exile)

She sang almost 6000 songs,
including movie soundtracks and independent records and cassettes, as well as
radio broadcasts. She worked for Burma Broadcasting Service from 1961 to 1977
as an assistant producer. She is currently performing in the United States
and compiling an archive of materials related to the history of Burmese music.Her
current popular program is now presenting at BBC Burmese Section of her life
and Burmese music history from her perspective.

Win Pe (
Artist, Film Director & Writer in Exile )

A well-known artist, film director,
short-story writer, painter and musician.In the early 1960s, Win Pe worked as an
illustrator for People 's Daily in Mandalay,
and served as the principal of the State School of Fine Arts, Music and Dancing
until the early 70s. In a continuation of his creativity, Win Pe became a film
director, short story and screenplay writer. In 1994, he left Burma for the United States. In 1997 - 2005,
he has worked with Radio Free Asia under the name – Zaw Wate.

Contributors

1.Khaing
Mar Kyaw Zaw

Khaing Mar Kyaw Zaw (Burma), poet,
journalist, and teacher, is an ethnic Karen, one of Burma´s largest minority
populations.In 1992, Khaing Mar joined with the Karen opposition movement.
First she taught school and joined the KNU general secretary´s office. Now she
works for the Karen Women´s Organization and is the Burmese language editor for
the Karen Information
Center based in Thailand, writing news and
feature articles. She was awarded with Hellman-Hammett Grants in 2003 for her literary
and human rights activity.

2.Mya Kyay Mon

Student Activist and former
political prisoner turned into writer after she fled to Thai-Burma border. She was in
Insein prison with her mother, writer San San Nweh (Tharawaddy). She had to live in solitary confinement for 6
years. Her writings on her life in prison and her fellow political prisoners
were frequently seen in DVB, Irrawaddy, New Era Journal (Khit Pyaing) and
other Burmese periodicals published outside Burma. She now lives in Norway.

3.Kyaw Kyaw
Naing

He is a Saing musician for the
past 25 years, and is well experienced in Burmese and international Music and
musical instruments. Moreover, he is one of the few Burmese musicians whose
music has been recorded for projects released outside of Myanmar, and has performed in Russia, Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand, England
and the United States.
He performed his music on program “ The Bang on a Can Marathon Music” at
Brooklyn Academy of Music on October 28, 2001, and at Lincoln Center
on February 9, 2002.

For the first year 2004, we have run MoeMaKa
with self-funding received from our volunteer staffs and directors approximately
10248.00 annual. We also received US $ 10,000.00 from OSI Burma Project for technical
assistance which was spent sorely on hardware and software upgrade of MoeMaKa's
production.

For the second year 2005, MoeMaKa is running
its basic operation with 12,000.00 annual by
the self-funding received from our own volunteer staffs and directors. On
August 2005, we have received grant approval from OSI Burma Project of 16,000.00 US$ and Prince Claus Funds of 5,000.00 EU $.

Current Situation

MoeMaKa has established as one and only
community based station providing Burmese literature and audio archives among
other internet portals run by Burmese volunteers and professionals. As you can
all see, there are 5 major internet news and information sites run by democratic
Burmese which are Democratic Voice of Burma (http://wwww.dvb.no),
Norway, Mizzima News Group (http://mizzimz.com),
India, New Era Journal (http://khitpyaing.org),
Irrawaddy News Group (http://www.irrawaddy.org)
and Burma News Int'l (http://bnionline.net ),
Thailand. They are generally focusing on Burma related current news and
articles. However MoeMaKa has gained as the significant Burmese media site
which presents and represents Burmese literatures, cultural and social issues contemporary
to Burmese people inside and overseas.

That is why within the year 2005, MoeMaKa
has reached 1,300 subscriptions of its online free newsletter service. It is
now reaching a band width of 50 GB a month from 8000 over unique internet
service provider (ISP) servers. Despite blocking from the Burmese military
regime's internet censorship authority, we still can see Burmese internet users
from inside Burma
visiting MoeMaKa through free proxy servers too.

How's self-funding used and affected for
MoeMaKa

With self funding, we are doing our basic
services operational in the year 2005. They are itemized as follows;

We have produced following audio CD/DVD
program archived back from our past production;

"Tin
Moe for all seasons around the Burmese year", the recollection of interviews with Tin Moe from MoeMaKa weekly
radio programs on reflection of a Burmese poet on Burmese festivals around the
year.

"MoeMaKa
Weekly Radio Archived in MP3/Real Media - 2004", the
recollection of weekly radio programs from MoeMaKa in the year 2004 for the
Burmese audience who would be able to listen with their computer, CD or DVD
player without connecting to the internet.

Presentation Highlights – 2005 /
2006

We have reached significant recognition
among the Burmese media professionals, Burmese artists and audience and
following is the list that we considered ourselves some milestones;

MoeMaKa's
regular programs and articles on contemporary issues of Burma written by some artists and writers who
are still inside Burma
with hidden pen names. ( It is considered most significant because MoeMaKa
became trusted and credible by the Burmese audience and also by the artists and
writers who are under the heavy censorship of military junta)

MoeMaKa's
Special Program -Letters from the
Readers – which is sorely contributed by the Burmese audience inside Burma
and overseas, expressing of their opinions and thoughts.

Grants Received

MoeMaKa has received the grant approvals
from OSI-Burma Project of 16,000 US$ and also from Prince Claus Fund of 5,000
EU $ for the year 2005 which are more than 10,000 US$ of the grant we received in
2004 previously.

How grants used for MoeMaKa for the year 2005

1.We have
decided to maintain our basic operation within our budget managed from our own
self-funding for this year 2005.

2.We use the
grant money received on awarding royalty fees to our artists, writers and
advisors. ( US $ 6000.00)

3.We use the
grant money on producing publication of their works in books, newsletters and
CD/DVD towards Burmese audience inside and outside Burma. ( US $ 10,000.00)

4.We also use
some amount on upgrade of our web server to serve more band-width and capacity
to increasing audience. ( US $ 3000.00)

5.We use the
grant money to provide technical assistance to volunteer writers with hardware
and software to be able them to update their news and articles to us whenever
they are in the remote area or in mobile. (US $ 3000.00)

How the sponsorship of the granters be credited

1.All the
Granter's representing link are now displayed at the front page of our MoeMaKa
website as "Friends of MoeMaKa".

2.On the covers
of all the publication and production materials in the year 2005 from MoeMaKa,
all the Granters' name and logo shall be printed.

3.At least 10
copies of publication and production materials will be sent to all Granters'
organization address and if possible, more copies could be able to obtain upon
request.

4.All the
materials produced from MoeMaKa with the fund from granters shall be copy right
free to all the Granters i.e they are free to present or represent in their
works or reports or publications.

Other Achievements

Other Departments supporting MoeMaKa's main
operation have done following tasks;

i.Online
Catalog Order System (http://shop.moemaka.org) has updated
regularly with it own publication and also with other publications from other
Burmese media groups based in Thailand,
Korea, Japan and US which offers the convenient place
to order and distribute Burma
related issues.

ii.Online Media
Archive Library has regularly updated with books, CD/DVD and audio
records so it has collected around 1000 records electronically.

iii.Web Hosting
and Technical Support has been upgraded and maintaining the following
domains;

Due to financial difficulty, some team
members left MoeMaKa voluntarily letting other committed volunteer to step in
to run the operation. However we have more recruitment of volunteers in the
team, advisors and contributors.

The departed team members –

Kyaw
Aung Lwin (Officer, Production)

Kay
Thwe Khine (Officer, Operation)

The existing
team members –

Maung Yit
(Director, IT/IS, Editors, Production, Operation)

Htain Linn
(Officer, Editors, Production)

The newly
added team members –

Zarny Win
(Officer, Editors)

Chan Myay Ain
(Officer, Operation)

The
existing advisors –

Tin
Moe (Poet in Exile)

Maung
Swan Yi (Critic in Exile)

The newly
added advisors –

Mar
Mar Aye (Artiste in Exile)

Win
Pe (Film Director, Writer and Artist in Exile)

The
existing contributors –

Min
Zin (Journalist in Exile)

Khaing
Mar Kyaw Zaw (Writer in Exile)

The newly
added contributors –

Mya
Kyay Mon (Writer in Exile)

Kyaw
Kyaw Naing (Artiste in Exile)

2.
Plan Ahead Year 2006 – Building up capacity and beyond

Estimated Budget for next year 2006 on publication and production

For the year of 2006, we would like to
continue to provide the hardware, software support and royalty fees to our
advisors, contributors, media professionals, artists and writers.

We would also like to keep up the pace of
publication, production and distribution of MoeMaka's works towards Burmese
audience inside and outside Burma.

We have to recruit more volunteer staffs that
came into US with the resettlement program as refugees who are all Burmese
democratic journalists in exile.

With the amount of grant we are going to receive,
we are planning to use them as royalty fees to the Burmese writers and artists
in exile, in the Burmese border area and also for those still inside Burma who
contribute their articles passively.

With the amount of grant we are going to receive,
we are planning to publish compilations of Burmese articles written by Burmese
writers in exile which were normally banned in Burma. The authors are Tin Moe,
Maung Swan Yi, Aung Din, Min Zin and other articles by various writers
presented in MoeMaKa internet radio and online publication.

We are also planning to do the followings;

To
publish monthly newsletter in hard copy to be able to post or ship to any
Burmese audience inside and outside Burma so that MoeMaKa's outreach shall be extended
to non-internet users of Burma.

To
prepare and present "MoeMaKa in English" as MoeMaKa is to gain
more audience not only with Burmese speakers but also with non-Burmese speakers
to raise more awareness on building democratic civil society in Burma.

3. Major setback and
boundary MoeMaKa facing

1.Up until now, MoeMaKa could not still be able to
compensate the volunteer staffs for their valuable time and service. We still
could not even employ a part time staff yet. Still, we have encouraged and
requested them to continue their volunteer service and fund contribution to
make our operation running so that the grant money could be able to spend on
the more production of our works and on the royalty fees to the more needy
Burmese writers and artists.

2.Instead of opening up on-site information center
and library for the Burmese audience where MoeMaKa is located, we have
withdrawn ourselves just to maintain the online catalog library service for the
interested audience.

3.When extending our service in daily online
publication and updates of Burmese articles to the readers, we have hard time
presenting weekly radio programs on time between the months of August -
November 2005.

4.MoeMaKa Still Looking Forward

We are deeply appreciated and
obliged for the grant received. We would like to commit ourselves on
making of MoeMaKa as a practical ground for building democratic civil society
for the near future of Burma.
We also would like to welcome more volunteers and support to make this
institution a success as an example of Burmese communities inside and outside Burma to be more willing and daring to
contribute towards democratic struggle of Burma independently.